1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a method for determining continuously the presence of decomposable organic compounds in a gaseous phase.
The object of the invention is to show in a simple manner the presence, even in very low concentrations, of organic compounds in a gas phase. Both the content of organically bound carbon and the content of organically bound hetero-atoms (for instance chlorine, fluorine) in a gas phase are detectable. Such monitoring is required, for example, of gases when it is surmised that there are compounds within them that might interfere. The gas flows to be checked may be partial amounts of a large volume of gas (for instance ambient room air, oxygen, inert gases, exhaust gases).
2. Description of the Related Art
The state of the art of measuring the content of organic carbon in water and aqueous solutions may be ascertained by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,958,941 and 4,769,217, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,941 discloses a discontinuous procedure for determining organically bound carbon in an aqueous solution. An aqueous sample is added to a carrier liquid such as pure water, the mixture is circulated through a photo-reactor and exposed to ultraviolet light (i.e. a uv reactor). The carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) generated in the decomposition of the organic compounds is expelled from the carrier liquid, then the carbon dioxide is dissolved again in a sealed, partial volume of the carrier liquid and its presence therein is determined by means of a conductivity measurement. Upon termination of the test on a sample, the liquid contents of the two partial volumes are continuously passed through an ion exchanger and are regenerated thereby into pure water. This procedure is restricted to testing aqueous single samples, and only the volatile CO.sub.2 dissociation product produced from the organic compounds is determined as being present.
West German patent 32 23 167 describes a procedure for testing water containing dissociable carbon compounds. An aqueous-sample flow is passed continuously through an ultraviolet reactor and the non-volatile compounds produced from the organic compounds being present are determined in the aqueous-sample flow by means of conductivity measurements when the sample leaves the ultraviolet reactor. In this test procedure, the non-volatile decomposition products from organic compounds contained in an aqueous-sample flow are also determined.